Seven signs Aquarius, gets away with Murder

Seven Network has acquired several international series including David Duchovny’s Charles Manson-era drama Aquarius and Shonda Rhimes’ new series How to Get Away With Murder.

The Australian free-to-air broadcaster unveiled a new slate at its annual upfront for media buyers yesterday. ITV Studios Global Entertainment-distributed Aquarius (pictured) and Disney-distributed How to Get Away With Murder were the most notable international drama acquisitions.

ITV Studios launched Aquarius at MIPCOM and the Australian deal is its first international sale.

Aquarius will go out on NBC in the US and HTGAWM has already launched to strong ratings on ABC. Seven, which has programming deals with Disney and NBCUniversal, also picked up NBCU-distributed US drama State of Affairs, which will launch later this year.

The Australian broadcaster will also have a local version of A+E’s factual format The History of Us with Australia: The Story of Us. Essential Media and Entertainment will produce the series.

Local fare from Seven include a spin-off of its popular My Restaurant Rules format, competition series Restaurant Revolution.

Shine’s Australian division is making original drama Catching Milat about the ‘Backpacker Murderer’ Ivan Milat. Seven’s in-house production team will make Winter, another drama, starring Rebecca Gibney as detective Eve Winter.